Young Royals: After Season 1

Chapter 4: Simon

I mentally prepared last night to speak to Wilhelm today because I don't think we should avoid it anymore. This morning, I again wait outside the Biology classroom for Wilhelm, and when he exits, we make eye contact, and I tilt my head towards the empty classroom across the hall. We both sit down at a table, facing each other.

"Hi," I say because even though I tried to prepare for this, I still don't know how to start this conversation.

"Hi," Wilhelm responds, face expressionless, giving nothing away on how he is feeling.

Everything I had planned to say last night leaves my head, my mind completely blank. I had thought through how the conversation was going to go, how I was going to be nice and not think about how close we once were. I was going to ask how he was and make sure he was doing okay. Maybe I would ask how his Christmas was. But now, confronted with actually having to have this conversation, I cannot think of what to say. Luckily, Wilhelm knows how to hold a conversation, even if I am struggling with that simple task

"How are you?" Wilhelm asks, because of course that is how you continue a conversation.

"I'm good," I say letting out a breath. "I figured we should talk since we have to do that biology project this semester. We can't really avoid each other forever."

"I had no intent to avoid you," Wilhelm responds, eyes scrunching a bit at the corners, a bit of anger showing through in his tone. "You're the one that ignored me in the main hall and couldn't even acknowledge my existence."

"I know, but it just caught me a bit off guard, seeing you again after we hadn't talked for weeks," I responded, a little taken a back by Wilhelm's tone.

"I didn't think you wanted me to text since you said I had to figure out what I wanted myself. And then when I did hug you in PUBLIC, all you said was 'have a happy Christmas'," Wilhelm said in a slightly elevated voice.

I notice he didn't mention the thing he said during that hug, the "I love you". "Right, yeah, I did say that. You caught me by surprise," I respond, leaving it at that, also not wanting to bring up the elephant in the room.

A slight blush rises to Wilhelm's cheeks as he glances down at the table where his fingers are lightly tapping. He takes a deep breath and looks up again, but as our eyes meet again, the bell rings signaling that we have two minutes to get to our next classes.

"Want to meet this afternoon to discuss the project?" Wilhelm tentatively asks as he begins to stand.

"Sure, yeah, let's meet in the library after classes," I say, pushing back from the table, still looking into Wilhelm's eyes as we both stand. I have a bit of whiplash in the sudden change in conversation, though. We really went from me mentioning biology, to Wilhelm getting upset with me, to going back to biology.

"Sounds good. I'll meet you there." Wilhelm's face is back to being almost a mask, no expression or emotion visible as he begins heading towards the door. I trail behind him as we head into the hallway and go our opposite directions.